In Leigh Hunt’s poem ‘Abou Ben Adhem’ the protagonist Abou spoke only thrice. After waking up from his dream, Abou boldly asked the angel “What writest thou?” and then again asked “And is mine one?” when the angel answered that she was making a list of them who love God. In both cases Abou did not bother to make any preamble but directly and rather rudely spoke to the divine messenger.

But this third time he ‘spoke more low’, meaning put his request politely. We hear him utter —

“I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow men.”

This request was so polite that it made a sharp contrast to his previous communication with the angel. Moreover, it is for that politeness that the angel could not turn down his request but wrote his name and went off.